Sunday, August 7, 2016

HBLT (hook; book; look; took) and MWGYW (me-we-God-you-we)

HBLT (hook; book; look; took) and MWGYW (me-we-God-you-we) are two different methods for communicating God’s message to an audience, whether in church setup or group setup.  Below is a brief summary of the methods used. For more information and for further study, please refer to the bibliography.

HBLT: A Bridge Through Time
                            Hook                        Book                     Look                      Took
                         (present)                    (past)                 (present)               (future)


Why HBLT?
It is God’s nature to plan; spontaneity is not God’s way of working in the majority of situations. “God is not a God of disorder but of peace…everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.” (1Cor14:33,40) God is not haphazard; He has a sovereign plan for our lives for He designed His world by very exacting plans. We were created to His own image and we have the tendency to make plans as well. Should we not develop plans for teaching the Word of God as well?
HBLT is a trip through time, from the student’s world, back to the Bible’s world, again to the actual student’s world, then to the future (action and life transformation). HBLT is a guide to method choice and a way to simplify lesson planning.

A Plan for Teaching (Acts 17:16, 22-31,34)
Paul in Athens addressed the philosophers at Aeropagus on Athens’ Mars Hill. While waiting for Silas and Timothy, he became distressed by observing a city filled with idols, utterly lost and in need of Christ. So many idols exist, even on one the inscription “to an unknown god.”  How did Paul approach a people so much in need for the truth of Christ?
1.      Gains their attention by entering their world and hooks them:
a.       Makes observational needs assessment: he starts where they live.
b.      Tells his observations, “you are very religious…I even found an altar ‘to an unknown god’…”
c.       Stimulates their interest and curiosity while giving direction to his teaching, “that unknown god I am going to proclaim to you…”
2.      Presents and explores the truth with them and points out to Christ and the means of relationship to God.
a.       Helped them identify with a general implication for all persons, “God overlooked such ignorance, but now commands all people everywhere to repent.”
b.      Teaching ministry moved from general implications to personal application. Response can be either rejection or acceptance. The important is that all are brought to the place of response, the point of action.

Four Lesson Elements
The four elements are meant to give you a clear idea and a clear direction; they are not mechanical steps, but there is opportunity for flexibility and interaction.

1.      Hook; from student’s world to Bible’s world
There are several qualities of a good hook:
a.       Gains learner’s attention:
                                  i.      Build common ground with your learner/audience.
                                ii.      Know where they live, where they are.
b.      Surfaces a need (tension with co-worker, chronic illness, need for friendship and sense of belonging, encouragement, attention, recognition, acceptance, understanding, decision-making, guidance, sense of identity, healthy relationships).
                                  i.      Group Needs Assessment is a guide to devising the hook which should surface the need in a non-threatening, thought provoking manner.
                                ii.      Students’ perceived needs are different from true needs. The teacher must open students’ minds and hearts to the spiritual needs Scripture addresses.
c.       Sets a goal;  the Direction Step
                                  i.      The hook provides a reason for listening; either tune-in or tune-out.
                                ii.      Set a goal they want to reach and they will be with you.
                              iii.      Let them see Scripture with the mind of Christ and set worthy learning goals is part of the teacher’s task.
d.      Leads to Bible study (Book)
                                  i.      When you capture interest.
                                ii.      Set a goal.
                              iii.      Lead your students to the Bible.

2.      Book: clarification of meaning and exploration of truth
a.       Clarify meaning: the aim is to give students biblical information and help them understand it. Many methods are available, i.e. methodology:
                             i.      Participatory: buzz groups, small group reports
                           ii.      Teacher-centered method: cover quickly and give points
                         iii.      Audio-Visual: charts, visuals, power-points, video-clips, outline, etc…
                         iv.      Divide class into small groups; give questions for them to explore meaning, and then let them write on overhead transparency with marker to display findings.
b.      Lead the class to meaningful and purposeful exploration of the biblical truth foundation which can serve for several classes.

3.      Look: identify implications of truth to daily life
    A.    From book to look: you move to implications of the Bible study
    B.   Guide the class to discover and grasp relationship of implications to daily living.
    C.   Knowledge must be tempered with “spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col 1:9).
    D.   You can use a combination of case study + probing questions to encourage discovery of implications from the group’s study.
    E.   In the look section, the teacher encourages response took section and helps them plan specific ways.
    For example, Pete’s students discovered that the sources of joy (Philippians) were to get out the gospel and sacrifice self for others and the Lord. That guided discovery learning was done through group inquiry method but they had to identify implications for that info to Christian living. Pete guided the class by asking a question that revealed the life implications, “but what does this mean for the pattern of our daily lives?” This is the issue explored in the look section of HBLT approach.
In Pete’s case-study given to the class, they concluded that by those old couples moving to a retired nursing home to be looked after, as they dreaded the move, they are on a commission to a new mission field, will be able to share their faith, minister to others, and deepen their dependence on Christ the Lord.

4.      Took: response phase → change
a.       A response is required: it will take place outside of class in weekday life because faith demands response for growth and reality, otherwise, it is dead.
b.      For change to take place, move from general to implementation to actually plan how to implement the truth learnt.
c.       Bible teacher help students respond by leading them to see God’s will and by helping them to decide and plan to actually do.

LESSON PLANNING WORKSHEET
    Date: 11 July 2010
     Location:  Church (6th flr)
        File Under: JDG/071110/do you love me
    Target Group:  Jesus’ Disciples (JDG)
    Gender: female; Age Range: 25-35
    Status: married women and singles; Social Class: middle to low class
    Challenges: work, raising children, and witnessing to Christ.
    Those women are overwhelmed by the amount of work and home related responsibilities. They often betray their love for Christ, in so many ways, feel depressed and ashamed, and lose hope of ever being true disciples. The do not know how to live a life that witnesses to Christ.
    Passage:
    John 21:15-17

    Cross-reference: John 14:19-24,31; 2:24-25; 16:30; Matt 12:48-49; 7:15-23; 21:28-32; 1John 3:18
    For further reading: John 10; Ezekiel 34; Isaiah 40; Zech. 11; Psalm 23
    Exegetical Idea: To love Christ is to be committed to watch over His own people, mature and newly born, His commandment.
    Pedagogical Idea:  In spite of past denials or betrayals, Jesus will call his disciple out of his weakness, renew his calling, and give him the responsibility to watch over His people, either by teaching the word or attending to their needs to ensure their spiritual growth and maturity.
Lesson Aim(s)
    Cognitive (Head): Jesus’ disciples­ are to reflect on Jesus’ stance with Peter, to discriminate between past events and present commitment, and to realize that Jesus does not focus on our denials and betrayals but rather on renewing our commitment of love to Him through looking after His people.
    Affective (Heart): Jesus’ disciples are to be convinced that they can express their love to Christ in simple ways. They are to plan to meet once a week to pray and discuss how they can express their love in a practical way, whether at home, or at work, or market place, or else.

    Behavioral (Hands): Jesus’ disciples are to spend quality time with their families around the Bible study, or to plan home activities such as preparing sandwiches for the orphanage next to their home then make Bible study, or take their children to visit children’s cancer hospital and distribute hymn tapes or coloring book and pencils as a token of love, or to offer the gospel to the old sick lady or pension homes while attending to physical needs (such as bathing them, feeding them, combing their hair).
HOOK
    The Hook: a short story

     What do you think? A woman had two daughters, and she asked the first, “Mary, please go to the market place and buy me four pounds of green beans.” She answered, “I will not,” but afterward she regretted it and went. Then she came to the second and said, “Cathy, please clean the household and wash the dishes.” And Cathy said, “okay, Mom, I will,” but she did not.
1.    Which of the two loves her mother? Why?
2.    What is the measure of love, in this story?

BOOK
Content Outline: teacher-centered
1- Background to Text
    After resurrection, the disciples were afraid, depressed, hopeless, lonely, felt betrayed and deceived by their master, Jesus, Who appeared to them three times. This passage talks about Jesus’ third appearance with his disciples while Simeon-Peter had gone back to his first profession that of fishing fish instead of men. Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved him or not? Was it a an agape commitment that of a covenant love or just a brotherly friendship? Jesus reinstated Peter to watch over His people as a proof of love. Jesus equates love to care-giving.
2- Biblical Truth: love is deed in action
    “Do you love Me?...feed My lambs…tend My sheep…feed My sheep” 
3- Application: love to Christ is expressed by carrying out His commandment of tending and feeding:
     a-  Bible study with family or other
     b- Visitations to children’s cancer hospital and orphanages.
     c- Looking after old retired people’s home, while letting them know that they were sent by Jesus as an expression of love.
     Methodology

      Mini Lecture by the teacher who provides background information about the author, the gospel, the historic event, and original recipients of the message; the overall message, repeated words, analogy, questions posed and answers provided.

     Small Group Discussion, after mini lecture
     Jesus’ disciples are to explore:
     Q1: what were Peter’s emotions, given his denial to Christ, when Jesus confronted him with the question: “do you love Me?”
     Q2: did Peter understand the meaning and kind of “love” involved in the question?
     Q3:  why was Peter grieved when Jesus asked him a third time?
     Q4: where do you stand in your love to Christ? What kind of love is it? How can you develop it?
LOOK
     Back to our story of Mary & Cathy:
     1-  How could Cathy’s attitude towards her mother be changed or improved?
     2-  If this was a lack of love to her mother, how could she deal with it?
     3-  Was Peter’s betrayal to Christ a lack of love?
     4-  If yes, how could Peter love Christ or develop his love for Christ, i.e. take it one step higher?
     Goal Setting
     The group is to encourage one another to love Christ; express love in deeds; pray towards that goal and for the Holy Spirit to provide ideas for expressing love.
      Group Commitment
      Every two members are to make visitations once a week and to pray together before going to outreaches.
TOOK
     Group commitment to spend quality time with their families in Bible study (family altar) and in activities.
     Group prayer for outreaches; group outreach-report.
     Evaluation:



MWGYW  Approach
Create a Map
Andy Stanley and Lane Jones

ME (common ground w/ audience)
*        Find common ground with audience
*        Share genuinely a dilemma you, as communicator, are facing; otherwise, it will be difficult for the audience to trust you, you will be resisted and argued against.
*        Don’t assume a relationship with the audience unless it is a weekly audience, then the ME is not as critical.
*        Don’t skip the introductory remarks; big mistake!
*        Build connection with audience as noted by a head-shaking in agreement.

WE1 (tension in many areas)
*        Broaden the tension to include everybody.
*        Spend some time applying the tension to as many areas as you can so as to spark an emotion in as broad an audience as possible.
*        The goal is to surface the issue of unmet expectations.
*        Don’t transition from “WE” to the next section until you feel like you have created a tension that your audience is dying for you to resolve.
*        Focus on the question you are intending to answer: “what should I do about that?”
*        Application is not a section of the message, it is the context of the message.

GOD (divine right)
*        The goal here is to resolve the tension
*        Point people to God’s thoughts on the subject
*        The “good news is” ….
*        Background text: explain and engage the text:
o   Do not skip along the surface of the text
o   Do not go down so deep and stay there till the audience gasps for air
*        Engage the audience with the text: take them with you on your journey:
o   Do not just read
o   Do not just explain
*        Take the audience with you on your journey

YOU (application)
*        Tell people what to do with what they have heard
*        Answer to the question you have been asking
1.      So what?
2.      Now what?
*        Find an application that everybody can get on line
1.      Sets you up for the WE aspect of the message.
2.      Allows you to stay focused and concise in your communication
*        Broaden the application by thinking of :
1.      concentric circles of relationships such as:
§  Family
§  Community
§  Work
§  Marketplace
2.      Various age stages or groups:
§  Teenagers
§  Singles
§  Newlyweds
§  Parents
§  Empty nesters
§  Single-mothers
3.      Believers and unbelievers
4.      The person who is not there

WE2 (casting vision)
*        WE is about vision casting; a moment of inspiration.
*        As you did in ME, you gathered your audience around your shared frailty, misgivings, or temptations.
*        It is a moment of inspiration; call upon your audience to imagine
*        Paint verbal pictures of what could be done and should be done.

MWGYW Approach
John 21:15-17

ME
Every night, after finishing work and home-related responsibilities, I relax and watch TV until I fall asleep. I wake up the following morning my head filled up with the things I watched and my senses become vulnerable and tempted. This weighs me down; I get depressed and ashamed with such a feeling of inadequacy and unworthiness to be a disciple of Christ. I feel that I have betrayed Jesus because I know witness flow inside-out; my inner life should bear witness to God in the secret place where nobody watches me.

WE1
Don’t we all feel this one way or another, at one point or another? We confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord over our lives but our deeds deny Him! The truck-driver who gets angry from standing in a long traffic cue and starts reviling; the household wife who cheats on her husband in the home expenses; the woman that pretends to love her neighbor, yet gossips and damages her reputation; the friend who abuses her friend by gossiping on other people’s lives to damage their image; the single-mother who neglects her children and gives priority to her own private life; the doctor who commits illegal actions with his patients; the engineer who designs a building with improper foundational measurement in order to cut on cost; the CEO who oppresses his employees to cover up for his mistakes; the family that prefers to go to a movie during the weekly time reserved to erect the family altar; the pastor who counts on past sermons and do not seek the Holy Spirit to know the needs of the audience; the minister who discloses his flock’s secrets and betray their trust.
Aren’t we all denying and betraying Jesus in a way or another? Do we love Him? What to do? How to react to our betrayal?

GOD
The good news is that God does not look to our betrayals and denials but is more interested in renewing our commitment of love, not just any love, but covenant-love to Him. He not only will accept you but reinstate you to your former position, if not higher.
Jesus knows you are struggling with this feeling of betrayal for He knows the hearts of men (John2:24-25) and their frailty. Jesus encountered an even graver betrayal and denial from His inner circle disciple, Peter. Yet, after resurrection we see him ….

Background text at this juncture….. with biblical references as appropriate (John 14:19-24,31; 2:24-25; 16:30; Matt 12:48-49; 7:15-23; 21:28-32; 1John 3:18)

Biblical Truth… Love is deed in action
“Do you love me?  Feed My lambs…tend My sheep…tend My Lambs…”

YOU
“Do you love Me?” How will you interact with Jesus’ question? What will you do? So what if you have betrayed Jesus? Will you let your betrayal drive you further apart from Him?
Or
Will the single-mother start to look after her little ones and present her body as a living sacrifice to Christ? Will the housewife start to bless her neighbor and seek to pray for her/with her? Will the truck-driver spend time in prayer during the traffic light cue? Will the doctor seize opportunities to present free sample medicines to his needy patients and gospel literature? Will the engineer calculate the cost of material and search in the market place for the best cheapest price of constructing material and the difference given back to his client? Will the CEO call his employees to spend the first ten minutes of the working day in corporate prayers to develop the sense of Christian family? Will the pastor lay himself for his sheep just as Jesus did? Will the pastor spend more time seeking the Holy Spirit for the needs of his flock? Will the minister preserve people’s reputation and cover up in love for their weaknesses?


Jesus still asks you: “Do you love Me?”  If you do, then…
WE2
Look-up; Get-up; Make-up; Team-up
(Vision-Casting)
LGMT

Look-up: to Jesus and reflect on how he dealt with the issue of Peter’s betrayal and be encouraged by his unconditional everlasting covenant of love. He will never deny Himself even at times when you do.
Get-up:     to embrace His love which will wipe off all your inadequacies and regenerate strength and love.
Make-up:  for the lost time which has hurt you and those around you and for the broken relations.
Team-up:  with Jesus’ disciples: teach the word, go on outreaches, present works of mercy, or else as guided by the Holy Spirit.  Fit in His plan:
“Feed My lambs…Tend My Sheep…Tend My Lambs”

Can you imagine if every one of us looks-up, gets-up, makes-up, and teams-up, how would the Church be? An ideal picture of revival where God’s people, Jesus’ disciples, are looking up to Jesus, getting up daily from their inadequacies and weaknesses, making-up for wrongs and hurting, and teaming-up with other disciples as one, in commitment to the covenant of unconditional love.
Only then will you be able to answer:
“Do you love Me?”

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Richards, Lawrence, and Gary J. Bredfeldt. Creative Bible Teaching. Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 1998.
Stanley, Andy, and Ronald Lane Jones. Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Multnomah Publishers, 2006.

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